Five, the wounds
The letters in YeHoShUaH
The war-god
Fifth, in Latin, Quintus
Akin to Pontius
I know as Pentheus
(Archrival of the son of Zeus)
Raised aloft upon a tree
You met your Maker swiftly
Dismembered by your Mom and two aunts
Wielding wands
And then your severed head
Or nailed like the Christ 'twixt those two thieves
Three sword-like cross/trees planted into Calvary --
The Skull
In Rome, they called you Mercury
The youthful god
Of words and thieves -- or commerce
Waving upon that tricky wand
With outstretched wings
Twin-serpent twined
An orb impaled
And so it seemed
On Tuesday, nine-eleven
That crosses nailed demi-gods
And pillars of cloud blazed nigh to heaven
Our Pentagon
Our war-god, pierced
On Mars' own day
Yet fear we not!
To rise anon, on Sunday
Less fortunate, twin gods of commerce
Blood-filled, the shench, or shank
(An Anglo-Saxon drinking cup)
Agape, I halt
Struck by the stench
I reel
Tilting at hissing gasbags, jackstraws
Groping about the pregnant shank
Of this
The last, fifth Sun
Expecting a golden Savior to blaze forth
An army of White Knights
To tend a choked flame
To fan to leaping tongues
LIBER to roaring
THIS IS THE STANDARD, UNFLAGGING
Piercing my Penn, or head
Pray
Bull-Sun, be twice-born
With sweet satellites conjoined
By Truth &amp Peace, thus 'braced
And so, ever triply, Lagrangian
Gird 'round
This bruised Earth
So soothe us
May this
Be our balm.

*Penn = "head" in Welsh

originally posted as part of the Not Just virtual chapbook, on September 11, 2002

A friend began forwarding emails to me, on 9/8/01, from a
woman who calls herself Dove. The emails, which I had received
all weekend long, detailed a semi-secretive effort to shut down
the Federal Reserve Bank and switch us over to a system of U.S.
Treasury banks and a dollar backed by gold once again. Those who
were working on this effort were referred to as White Knights. I
opened an email on the morning of 9/11, saying that victory had
been achieved; everything was all set to go for an historic
announcement. About half an hour later, the destruction of the
economic center of New York City began. I assumed we were at war
with ourselves. This information had come to me out of theblue.
The timing of it was extraordinary. It has colored my view of events
ever since. I still cannot entirely dismiss it.